Chapter 552: The Six Energy Factors
Evan had already met the person responsible for yeeting him back in time by 10 millennia.
The weight of those words sunk deep and struck a chord with Evan. He didn’t want to, but it was as if his own brain refused to follow his wishes and began piecing the puzzle together.
’Fuck...’
He cursed internally, but because his head was down, the other two didn’t see his expression and he was able to control it before he raised his gaze.
Meeting his eyes, Jamie pointed at the six circles floating in the air and spoke.
"The ’Energy Factors’. Let’s hear them."
"..."
For a moment, Evan was silent.
Then, he began.
"The Bö̸͔̥̬̙́̀ͅo̴̗̥͔̯̿k̷͔̲̺̪̠͂ ̷̹̀̀̈͠ȍ̷͖̓͑͜f̴͖̣̞͆͗ ̸͙̗̖̪̘̋̾̑̽L̵͎͓̤̠͐̂̂ŭ̸͓͝i̸̡̯̺̐̀̽̍r̴̢̙̯̗̈́̕ḛ̸͉̹̤͌̓-̶̨̜̪͔̌͆̉ͅ!!"
"!!!"
Both Evan and Arthur winced in pain at the strange static noise that filled their ears in the same instant the words left Evan’s mouth.
Nevertheless, they were not surprised. Such a thing was expected.
Arthur, with his Pseudo-Authority over Time, could see why this had happened. The Law of Time was trying to stop Evan from speaking about the future.
Whatever Evan was about to mention most likely did not yet exist at this point.
So, the law of time, aided by the autonomous law of causality, interfered to prevent the words of Evan who was from the future, from entering the ears of Jamie and Arthur who were from his past; preventing them from knowing about whatever he was about to say before it happened.
However, the laws of time and causality were bound to fail. The reason: Jamie.
Unlike Arthur and Evan, Jamie was a Grade 7 Singularity with full control over his Singularity Nature. He was also a Complete Cosmic Being.
The man held up his right hand and Arthur felt an astonishing amount of cosmic energy gather within his palm.
Without a word, Jamie clenched his fist and destroyed this orb of cosmic energy, and a loud cracking sound rang out in the ears of the two boys.
"That should hold for an hour. Carry on, Evan."
Jamie had ensured there would be no censoring of Evan’s words anymore, so after a short pause, the Rogue Hero parted his lips and began.
"The light and spatial magic power from a Grimoire, belonging to a ’Demon King’."
"Light and Space? Aren’t those—"
"Alvey’s main powers? Yes."
Evan cut Arthur off with his answer before the godslayer even completed the question. At this, Jamie snapped his fingers and the first floating ring had Alvey’s portrait appear in front of it.
"Next."
Jamie spoke and Evan delved into his memories of the chaotic trip through space, recalling the words his ’Ally’ had spoken to him.
"My ’Blessing of Destruction’ Skill’s Destruction Essence."
From the emphasis in his words, ’Destruction Essence’ was key here. This was an imitation of Destruction law energy created with magic power, which Evan had wielded before he became a Legendary and was able to manipulate ambient laws.
"Where did you get that Skill from?"
"It was given to me by someone, but I have no idea about their real identity. Just that they are associates of the same ’Ally’ who told me what the spell did."
Evan’s reply to Arthur’s question put them in a bit of a bind. This was one energy factor whose owner they didn’t know.
Jamie silently drew a single line to cross out the second hologram circle before gesturing to Evan and the boy called out the third factor; one whose owner they all knew.
"The Ice energy of Demon Sword Frostshade."
"?! That’s Sigesi’s sword!"
Arthur had sparred against Sigesi more times than he counted so there was no way he of all people would not know the name of her Soul Bound weapon.
He also remembered Evan’s sword having Frostshade’s ability and felt that it was definitely not unrelated to Evan’s forced time travel.
Jamie edited the hologram, adding Sigesi’s image to the third circle and without him needing to gesture, Evan continued.
"The Lightning energy of a Great Lightning Spirit."
This Factor was one whose owner Arthur could not figure out. He turned to Jamie and saw the man looking at Evan with his eyes narrowed into slits.
"A Great Lightning Spirit, you say?"
"Yes."
Evan definitely knew the name of the Spirit, but he did not say it out. However, he didn’t need to as Jamie already knew who it was.
"This Spirit, is she a tall fair-skinned woman with long waist-length black hair that curls at the ends, noble gold-coloured eyes, and doll-like facial features?"
"(○□○)"
Although his mask prevented them from seeing his gaping jaw, Evan’s widened eyes were enough for them to know that Jamie’s very specific description had hit the mark.
"Who’s that?"
Arthur was the only one still out of the loop here, and Jamie kindly filled him in.
"The person I just described was Kaylatheurge. The Spirit Empress."
Now it was time for Arthur’s jaw to drop as he didn’t expect a Race Empress to be suddenly thrown into the mix.
Jamie, on the other hand, rationalized a few things in his head before sharing his understanding with them.
"On the day Evan arrived from the future, Rilene did not find the source of the Spatiotemporal disturbance for two reasons.
One was what I told you earlier: it disappeared before she could track it down.
The second, was because she was held up by a meeting with someone."
Reaching for the wine bottle at the edge of the table, he poured himself a drink as he continued.
"Slumbering within the Star Planet Aramis calls its Sun, was the Spirit Empress."
He then pointed at the magic circle hologram floating above the table and spoke.
"The distance between the Sun and Aramis is hundreds of millions of kilometres, but to a Tier 8 Spell cast by a Deity with interstellar range? That’s still the same area of space."
Alvey and Sigesi on the Planet and Kaylatheurge on the Star. The Spell saw the 31st of March as the furthest point in time where they were in the ’Same Area’ and picked that day to toss Evan into.
"That’s four energy factors out of six. What are the remaining two?"
Evan twisted his lips behind his mask when Jamie asked him this. His brain had already arrived at an answer to this mystery and despite his attempts to ignore or refute it, the evidence was solid.
With the energy factors listed so far, Evan had an idea. What if the first group of people he encountered were all related to the spell?
’I had landed in the middle of an abandoned playground, but knowing that the spell also considered Kaylatheurge who was millions of miles away to be in the ’same area’, then perhaps, the reason I hadn’t landed right in front of them was because she was nearby.
What if her presence had tugged on the Spell, like how the gravity of a planet could tug on distant asteroids and this caused the spell to drop me some distance away?’
He temporarily put a stop to his thoughts and looked at the two remaining empty floating circles in front of him.
Two Energy factors left.
"I was told the last two in the same sentence.
Quoting my ’Ally’ verbatim: "Both of our Divini-"."
Jamie and Arthur arched their brows when Evan abruptly stopped speaking, but a moment later they remembered he had said his ’Ally’ had not been able to tell him everything because before ’they’ could finish speaking, the spell began sending him through time.
Still, it wasn’t hard to figure out what they were trying to say.
"Both our Divinities."
In other words, the fifth and sixth energy factors were divinities from two different beings.
The question now, was who were they?
Arthur and Jamie asked Evan this with their eyes and the boy sighed before answering.
"Guess there’s no point being secretive at this point. The ’Ally’ who informed me about the spell’s effects and the energy factors; their divinity was the fifth factor.
As for their identity..."
Evan looked at Arthur as his words trailed off and Arthur quickly understood that he was supposed to know who they were.
If they were a divinity wielder, the highest probability was that they were a member of the ’god’ race and after thinking up to that point a name came to mind.
He remembered the fight against Idrilla where Evan had tacitly admitted that they were present when he was sent back in time.
"Artemisia?"
"Bingo."
Evan affirmed his words and snapped his fingers, replacing the fifth circle projection with a picture of the teenage goddess.
"The ’Future Artemisia’ told you that "Both Our Divinities" got absorbed. Meaning hers and "someone else’s" divinity.
The Spell was cast by an ’unknown god’, who is the most likely candidate for being this ’someone else’."
Arthur spoke as he looked at the floating projections, but before he could speak further, he froze as he noticed a commonality between the images they had put up.
"Evan...Three out of the Six factors you know the Spell absorbed belong to Three out of the first Six people you encountered."
"..."
Evan did not say a word.
"I could ignore one, I could ignore two, but three? This isn’t a coincidence anymore."
"..."
Evan remained silent, but Arthur continued with his deductions.
"According to Jamie, the Spell requires both ’Time’ and ’Space’ Authorities to cast. We know the spell was cast by a god with ’divinity’, and the fact that the location it sent you was one ’relative to the caster’.
Three of the Factors have their sources confirmed as people you encountered first on Aramis. Following this trend, if the last factor was also ’divinity’ then no matter how you look at it, it’s very obvious that the caster is-!"
Arthur’s words cut off mid-way as he turned to Evan and saw the look in the boy’s grey eyes. His own eyes widened in realisation at that moment.
"You already figured it out..."
"..."
Evan didn’t say anything and just sighed, pressing his fingers to his temple, but that was all the affirmation Arthur needed.
He had indeed figured it out. It was all based on the assumption that the Sixth Factor indeed belonged to the caster, but after piecing together everything, it was the only conclusion he could come to.
Although he tried to ignore it, ignoring it didn’t change the reality.
Evan’s mind replayed Jamie’s earlier words—that he’d already encountered the ’unknown god’ responsible for sending him back in time. Just as the memory surfaced, the door to the room swung open, and a bubbly voice filled the air.
"I knew I sensed Uncle Jay’s presence!"
The speaker bounced into the room, a bright smile lighting up their face—until they noticed the way all three guys present were staring at them.
"Uh, why are y’all looking at me funny?"
Instead of answering, Jamie offered a wry smile and spoke to the newcomer.
"It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Good to see you again, Beatrix."
